Lawmaker mandates raise bar

Do better.

Do it soon.

Laden with those mandates from state lawmakers, Nevada’s child welfare officials are embarking on the next phase of overhauling a system in crisis.

It’s a challenge that state Director of Health and Human Services Mike Willden has undertaken with a will. On Friday, he said this could well be the beginning of turning Nevada’s system into a model child welfare program.

“If we implement what we now have on the books, the potential is there,” Willden said. “We still have a long way to go, but we’re in a mile run. We’ve now run the first lap.”

Child welfare officials left the last legislative session with significant funding for new programs and staffing. According to state officials, $131 million was approved for Clark County’s child welfare integration budget for the 2008-09 biennium. That represents a 67 percent increase over the previous budget, said Steve George, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

Willden said the new funding includes $20 million over the next two years to reduce caseloads to about 22 cases per worker in Clark County. Currently, the ratio is as high as 40 cases per worker.

Clark County will receive $8.6 million to increase foster parent daily pay rates, which Willden said will go from $21.50 to $24 on July 1, and from $24 to $28 in 2008.

Willden’s department also now has $5.2 million to create a child welfare training center that will serve both new and continuing workers across Nevada. That need was identified in a report made by a state-appointed panel formed to study why suspicious child deaths in Clark County and elsewhere were not being properly reported and investigated.

Training is vital, Willden said, especially because more than 200 new employees will be coming online in Clark County as newly created child welfare services positions are filled.

There are 119 new positions opening up under the county’s own Safe Futures plan, Willden said. There are about 85 new positions that will be funded by the state. The first classes through the training center will be offered later this year.

The new resources are tied to laws enacted by legislators to increase oversight, regulation and accountability within child welfare.

Child Haven, Clark County’s emergency shelter for abused and neglected children, is preparing to meet some of the new requirements, which includes licensing by the state. Child Haven now operates as an unlicensed facility.

“The first thing I’m concerned about is capacity,” said Lou Palma, manager of shelter services for Clark County Family Services.

For instance, the population at Child Haven last week hovered at 119. Under day-care licensing standards, the capacity would have been capped at about 96, Palma said.

Because of facility requirements, such as one that specifies that one sink be available for every four children, cottages that have housed up to 24 children in the past will likely be capped at eight children in the future, Palma said.

“No one is going to be put out on the street,” he said. “But it does present a challenge.”

The good news is that community groups already have stepped forward to offer help with making capital improvements, Palma said. At least three cottages are going to need immediate improvements, Palma said.

But before any of that happens, the state and county need to create a new set of regulations for licensing a government-operated child-care institution.

At this point, they don’t exist. While Washoe County’s emergency shelter for abused children is licensed, it’s a courtesy license issued under day-care regulations.

“Right now, the state does not have specific licensing regulations for an entity like Child Haven,” said Tom Morton, director of Clark County Family Services. “Conservatively, they estimate six months and as long as possibly 12 months to develop the regulations.”

In addition, Morton is also faced with developing alternatives to Child Haven for children under the age of 3 years.

Assembly Bill 147, which passed into law, prohibits the placement of children under the age of 3 years in a group shelter. It’s a change that children’s rights groups have been pushing for. Before the law was passed, Clark County entered into an agreement with the Nevada ACLU and the California-based Youth Law Center to work toward that goal.

Willden said child welfare officials have enough on their plates to keep them busy for several years as they work to meet stricter standards in reviewing child fatalities and increased reporting requirements.

The good news, Willden said, is that everyone seems to be on the same page in terms of what improvements in child welfare are expected.

The goals of state lawmakers reflect the agenda of federal officials, who recently approved the state improvement plan for increasing child welfare safety.

The plan gives Nevada until 2008 to meet federal standards related to investigating maltreatment complaints, keeping kids in their homes, if possible, and providing children with permanent and stable living arrangements.

Those are goals everyone at every level supports, Willden said.

“I think it’s hand in glove right now,” he said.